Environmental Justice League of RI

September 2, 2016September 2, 2016

PVD City Council fails to pass 2nd resolution opposing LNG

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Providence City Councillor Seth Yurdin introduced a resolution Thursday evening that would strengthen the City Council’s opposition to National Grid’s proposed Fields Point liquefaction facility. Immediately after introducing his resolution Councillor Sam Zurier rose to co-sponsor, as did councilors David Salvatore, Carmen Castillo, Wilbur Jennings, Jo-Ann Ryan and Terrence Hassett.

Noting that it seemed as if a majority of the council was co-sponsoring the resolution, Yurdin moved that the resolution be voted on immediately. This caused councilors Jo-Ann Ryan and Terrence Hassett to suddenly flip their support. Yurdin’s move for passage failed, and the resolution was passed onto the Ordinances committee.

Reached for comment, Hassett wrote, “I voted no to have an immediate passage on the floor without a Council committee review. I co-sponsored it but a committee review is necessary for a proper vetting and discussion before it is transmitted to the full Council.”

Ryan wrote, “I requested to be a sponsor of the resolution last night. It was sent to ordinance committee by a majority vote. I voted to send it to committee to provide an opportunity for community input at an open public meeting of the council. You can and should attend and voice your concerns. And encourage others to attend and participate in the process.”

There are no ordinance committee hearings on the current schedule. Hassett is the chair of ordinance and Ryan is a member of the committee.

National Grid wants to expand its LNG footprint in the Port of Providence with the new liquefaction plant. Environmental groups such as the RI Sierra Club and the Environmental Justice League of RI oppose the plan. Curiously, Save the Bay, whose offices are not too far from the proposed site, have not come out against it.

Mayor Jorge Elorza and a large group of state level Providence legislators have recently publicly come out in opposition to the project.

The City Council unanimously approved Yurdin’s previous resolution opposing the site in March. That resolution called for public meetings to be scheduled to address environmental and health concerns of the project. “Unfortunately,” said Yurdin, here we are in the Summer and no such meetings have been held… This resolution is stronger than the previous resolution.”

The previous resolution called for studies and review. The new resolution is a call to strong action.

The new resolution says, in part, “That the City shall take all necessary actions to oppose the proposed Fields Point liquefaction facility, including ceasing to act as a cooperating agency with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and shall not grant any tax stabilizations, subsidies, or any other forms of support to the project.”

June 24, 2016June 23, 2016

#NoLNGinPVD taking on National Grid

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A second demonstration to bring attention to the $100 million fracked, liquefied natural gas compressor station National Grid is trying to build in South Providence was held outside the company’s location at the corner of Allens Ave and Terminal Rd Wednesday afternoon. The demonstration was the effort of the Environmental Justice League of RI (EJLRI), area residents and other community and environmental organizations.

This demonstration garnered none of the police attention of the first.

This area of South Providence is the city’s sacrifice zone for toxic chemical storage and fracked gas storage, a prime example of environmental racism.

Consider joining the #NoLNGinPVD effort.

June 10, 2016June 10, 2016

Demonstrators tell National Grid: #NOLNGinPVD

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A demonstration to bring attention to the $100 million fracked, liquefied natural gas compressor station National Grid is trying to build in South Providence was held outside the company’s location at the corner of Allens Ave and Terminal Rd Wednesday afternoon. The demonstration was a joint effort of the FANG Collective, Environmental Justice League of RI (EJLRI), area residents and other community and environmental organizations.

The organizers see the expansion of chemical industries in this area of South Providence as “a clear example of environmental racism as all 11 of the EPA‘s identified toxic polluters in Providence are already in this zip code, which is predominantly low-income people of color.”

The impact and dangers of this project have been outlined by the EJLRI in detail here in a series of articles. The demonstrators have a Twitter hashtag: #NOLNGinPVD

There was a heavy police presence in the area, including a “prisoner transport van and numerous police cars. This was in addition to whatever private security National Grid employs. The heavy policing of local environmentalists and activists has been an ongoing issue in South Providence.

The dirt and soil all along this are near the port and along the bay may be contaminated with some pretty bad chemicals. When digging into that dirt, the soil needs to be tested and precautions, such as covering piles of dirt with large tarps to prevent the contaminated soil from blowing away and contaminating the air, water or nearby, previously uncontaminated areas. So it was with some surprise that I note the large piles of dirt behind the fence at National Grid, created during building project and uncovered by tarps.

Edit: David Graves, spokesperson for National Grid explains: “The soil you’re referring to is the extra dirt that is taken from the ground during gas main replacement. Because of the space taken up by the new mains and the pavement, there is always a certain amount that won’t fit back into the excavation. It’s brought to the Allens Ave. property, sifted and kept on site for future use.”

I did learn a fun game. Standing with the demonstrators and taking pictures on Allens Ave, I noticed that some of them were taking pictures of passing chemical trucks, like this one:

By noting the number on the DOT Hazard Class sign, and looking up the chemical on your cell phone, you can learn exactly how you would suffer and die were that truck ever to be in an accident too close to you. For instance, the truck above has a DOT Hazard Class 1791:

Here’s what you will find out about Sodium Hypochlorite:

ACUTE TOXICITY – Danger Corrosive

INGESTION-

Ingestion of a few ounces can cause corrosion of mucous membranes, swelling of the throat, perforation of the esophagus and stomach, vomiting, colitis, and circulatory collapse. May lead to convulsions, coma or death

EYE / SKIN-

Liquid contact can produce irritations of the skin with blistering. Direct contact with eyes may cause redness, pain and in the case of concentrated Hypochlorite ( 20% by volume), permanent damage.

INHALATION-

Inhalation of mist or fumes can cause bronchial irritation, cough, difficult breathing, inflammation of the mouth, nausea, and in severe exposures, pulmonary edema. Material has odor of chlorine.

Fun, right?

Try it yourself. Here’s a truck carrying DOT Hazard Class 1824:

Here’s the least dangerous truck with a DOT Hazard Class sign that rumbled past in a ten minute period, 3257.

I took these three pictures within ten minutes of each other. At least 20 such trucks pass by every hour.

This is what environmentalists mean when they talk about sacrifice zones. Trucks like these never trundle through neighborhoods on the East Side or East Greenwich. Yet this part of Providence is a neighborhood, with nearby hospitals, schools, businesses and homes.

People live here.

February 3, 2016

Two protests rock State House during Governor’s budget address

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As Governor Gina Raimondo presented her budget to the General Assembly and the television viewers at home, she was being simultaneously protested by two groups. The first was a coalition of environmental groups opposed to her support for the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in Rhode Island, and the second was made up of undocumented workers and their allies, there to hold the Governor to her promise to make driver’s licenses available to all.

The evening started with members of FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas), BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion), Fossil Free Rhode Island and the Environmental Justice League of RI (EJLRI) coming together to protest the Governor’s support for three fracked gas projects in Rhode Island: Invenergy‘s planned fracked gas power plant, the Clear River Energy Center, to be built in Burillville; Spectra Energy‘s planned expansion of pipelines and a compressor station in Burrillville; and National Grid’s planned liquefaction plant at Field’s Point in South Providence.

About five minutes before Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, as per tradition, lead Governor Raimondo to the House Chambers, English for Action, a group dedicated to improving the lives of immigrants and undocumented workers, entered the State House to stage their own protest. Candidate Raimondo had promised this group that she would issue an executive order, within her first year in office, allowing undocumented workers to get driver’s licenses.

The Governor has broken this campaign promise.

The two groups lost no time in joining forces and ascended the stairs to the second floor chanting and marching. They were kept from approaching the entrance to the House Chambers by Capitol and State Police who formed a line in front of them. The protests were loud, but completely peaceful.

2016-02-02 State House 021 — Governor Raimondo

After the Governor entered the House Chambers to deliver her State of the State address, (successfully avoiding any contact with protesters) the two groups briefly separated before joining forces on opposite stairways in the main rotunda. Here they gave a series of short speeches explaining their positions and pledging to support each other’s efforts.

As EJLRI’s Jesus Holguin said to me afterwards, the two issues are actually more related than they might appear. The same forces that drive people from their home countries to seek work in the United States are working to keep the United States addicted to fossil fuels. During his address to the crowd, Nick Katkevich of FANG pointed out that English for Action is one of many groups that has signed onto FANG’s letter opposing the power plant.

The two groups pledged to support each other’s issues and future actions.

One thing that became abundantly clear is that the number of people who are willing to protest the Governor (and, as we saw yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse) is growing. Katkevich asked those present to join with FANG “everywhere the Governor goes” to call Raimondo out on her support for the power plant.

July 9, 2015

PVD City Council fails to deliver on minimum wage promise in new TSAs

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Last year, after the General Assembly stole away the power of cities and towns in Rhode Island to set their own minimum wages, Providence City Councillor John Igliozzi told a packed room of disappointed hotel workers that the city was not prohibited from imposing higher minimum wage standards via tax stabilization agreements (TSAs), which are contracts between cities and private industry, and cannot be interfered with by the General Assembly.

Igliozzi said then that all future TSAs should include strong minimum wage requirements and many other worker protections and rights.

Igliozzi is the chair of the Providence City Council Finance Committee, so one would expect that he would follow up on this proposal, but so far, nothing like this has been incorporated into the new TSAs being cooked up in City Hall and expected to be voted on this week.

When Jesse Strecker, executive director of RI Jobs with Justice, testified before the Finance Committee of the Providence City Council, he presented a short list of proposals to ensure that whatever TSAs were adopted would truly benefit not just the investors and owners of billion dollar corporations but also the working people and families of Providence.

Strecker’s list included the following:

1. Provide good, career track jobs for Providence residents most in need by utilizing apprenticeship programs and community workforce agreements, hiring at least 50% of their workforce from the most economically distressed communities of Providence, with a substantial portion of that workforce made up of people facing barriers to employment such as being a single parent or homeless, or having a criminal record, offering job training programs so local residents are equipped with the skills necessary to perform the available jobs and hiring responsible contractors who do not break employment and civil rights law;

2. Pay workers a living wage of at least $15 per hour, provide health benefits and 12 paid sick days per year, and practice fair scheduling: offering full time work to existing employees before hiring new part time employees, letting workers know their schedule two weeks in advance, and providing one hour’s pay for every day that workers are forced to be ‘on call’;

3. For commercial projects, create a certain number of permanent, full-time jobs, or for housing developments, ensure that 20% of all units are sold or rented at the HUD defined affordable level. Or, contribute at an equivalent level to a “Community Benefits Fund,” overseen and directed by community members providing funding to create affordable housing, rehabilitate abandoned properties, or finance other community projects such as brown field remediation; and

4. Present projected job creation numbers before approval of the project, and provide monthly reporting on hiring, wages and benefits paid, and other critical pieces of information, to an enforcement officer, overseen by a Tax Incentive Review Board comprised of members of the public and appointees of the city council and mayor, to make sure companies are complying with their agreements, and be subject to subsidy recapture if they do not follow through.

Mayor Jorge Elorza submitted an amendment mandating that under the new TSAs, “projects over $10 million will be eligible for a 15-year tax stabilization agreement that will see no taxes in the first year, base land tax only in years 2-4, a 5% property tax in year 5 and then a gradual annual increase for the remainder of the term.”

In return, the “agreements include women and minority business enterprise incentives as well as apprenticeship requirements for construction and use of the City’s First Source requirements to encourage employment for Providence residents.”

But that short paragraph above contains few of the proposals suggested by Strecker.

Supporting the Jobs with Justice proposals are just about every community group and workers’ rights organization in Providence, including RI Building and Construction Trades Council, Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), UNITE HERE Local 217, IUPAT Local 195 DC 11, District 1199 SEIU New England, RI Progressive Democrats of America, Teamsters Local 251, Fuerza Laboral / Power of Workers, Environmental Justice League of RI, RI Carpenters Local 94, Restaurant Opportunities Center RI (ROC United), Mount Hope Neighborhood Association, American Friends Service Committee, Occupy Providence, Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), Fossil Free RI, Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), Prosperity for RI, and the Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School Prison Health Interest Group.